Sport
30 May, 2024
Tough loss brings lessons
KOLORA-Noorat’s A-grade netball side gained a better understanding of themselves after a tough loss to Merrivale over the weekend.
Coach Laura Bourke said she saw a lot of good netball from her side in a 32-48 loss which did not reflect the strong passages of play from the Power.
“It was a really good game of netball on both ends,” she said.
“I love playing teams like Merrivale as it shows us where we’re at going in to the second half of the season.
“It’s good to see, we can pull out something if we need to but I don’t see a negative throughout the game.
“It’s disappointing it blew out the way it did - it was quite close but in the second quarter we just dropped a little and their lead was out to around 15.
“It stuck with that as we crept back a little bit but then it went out again.”
Bourke said the loss provided an opportunity to reflect on what was an wasn’t working, and a takeaway was knowing there were stretches her unit was able to hang in there against a quality opponent.
“We discussed where we went wrong and dropped our heads a little last week but considering we made quite a few changes we know we’re at a point of trialling a few things,” she said.
“We know we can keep with a good team, such as Merrivale, but we just need to keep it strong throughout four quarters of netball.”
The Power will be tasked with taking on Russells Creek this weekend, but Bourke said the big emphasis for her side was to push through with strengthening their own game and building upon the positives each week.
“Most of the season I’ve not had too much expectation on the girls and what we’re going to do,” she said.
“We try to take forward the things we work on at training and learn from each week, picking out what we need to work on.
“We try to go out and do what we can, working on enhancing our game, so having teams like Nirranda and Merrivale as two of the top sides has given us a little extra insight in to what we need to do and to be among the best.
“Our focus is just putting all the things we’re working on in to practice on Saturday.”
Meanwhile on the oval, Kolora-Noorat’s senior football side will be looking to bounce back after suffering a 51-point loss to Merrivale over the weekend.
The Power surged to a comfortable 4.1 (25) to 2.2 (14) lead to close out the first quarter at the Noorat Recreation Reserve, but only managed to add an additional 11 points to the scoreboard for the remainder of the game.
Final score was Merrivale 12.15 (87) defeated Kolora Noorat 5.6 (36).
Best for the Power was Caleb Scanlon, Samuel Kenna, Stephen O’Connor, Jack Vaughan, Jack Aitken and Jack Carlin.
Justin Wallace led the goal scorers with two while Louis Cahill, Riley Kelly and Trent Glennen all added one.
The reserves also could not find themselves in the winner’s column, falling 6.4 (40) to Merrivale 12.11 (83).
Best for the reserves was Isaiah Bird, Tyler Friswell, Paul Messer, Paul McSween and Michael Bell.
Paul Messer led the scoring with four, while Riley Scanlon added two.
